Petunia
/pəˈtjuː.ni.ə/noun
A flowering plant of the nightshade family, commonly grown for its brightly colored trumpet-shaped flowers.
Did you know?Petunias belong to the nightshade family, alongside tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes, and deadly nightshade—plants associated historically with medicine, poison, and ritual knowledge.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Colonial Era
Tupi
petyma
“Tobacco”
16th Century
Tupi/European records
petun
“Tobacco, recorded by European observers in South America”
16th–17th Century
French
pétun
“Tobacco; a loanword adopted from Indigenous South American languages”
1789
Botanical Latin
Petunia
“The plant genus name, formed from French pétun because of the plant's relationship to tobacco”
19th Century
English
petunia
“A cultivated flowering plant of the genus Petunia”
Modern English
English
petunia
“A widely grown ornamental plant with colorful funnel-shaped flowers”